2. Political Consciousness

The concept of political consciousness. 'Political consciousness reflects the understanding of the relationship established between people's immediate practical activity, on the one hand, and socially regulated conditions under which this activity takes place, on the other. As the social division of labour leads to the formation of classes, and thus to sharp differences in the conditions of their exist­ence, the need arises for supporting the established class structure through state power expressing the interests of the ruling class. Pol­itical consciousness is a reflection of the economic, social and produc­tion interconnections between classes in their overall relation to state power. This conditioning by the immediate economic and class in­terests constitutes the specificity of political consciousness, within which the political interests proper evolve.

Political interests are objective, and they therefore concern every individual, whether openly expressed or concealed. In effect, the life of every society (with the exception of the primitive-communal one) is permeated with political interests in which acute social contradic­tions are focused. It is precisely political interests that are mostly at the centre of all socially active associations and, even more so, of so­cial conflicts. In this struggle, anything—science, art, religion, phil­osophy—can become an object of political consciousness, and any­thing may be drawn into the sphere of ideological discussions.

Levels of political consciousness. Apart from the decisive, class criterion of evaluation of political consciousness applied in social philosophy, it generally subdivides this consciousness into two le­vels—the everyday practical level and the ideological-theoretical one, in accordance with the division, described earlier, of social consciousness as a whole into social psychology and ideology.

Everyday practical political consciousness emerges spontaneously, growing out of people's practical activity, their social background and immediate environment. Without theoretical reflection, this consciousness combines the rational and the emotional, fresh ex­periences of everyday life and traditions, the mood of the moment and the stable stereotype. It is often unstable, fluctuating with the emotions and the changing immediate experiences, but it is also largely static, as the acting stereotypes make thought lose its flexi­bility.

At the same time it is precisely everyday consciousness that, owing to its direct dependence on objective economic reality, con­tains an embryo of a theoretical political ideology of the given class. Critically analyzing the content of everyday consciousness, theoretical ideology works out a clear-cut, historically and sociologically substantiated political program. Ideology is not a passive study of the existing attitudes but a strategic and tactical system aimed at ac­tive reverse influence on social consciousness. The complexity of the relationship between ideology and everyday con­sciousness is the source of numerous political collisions, beginning with excessive anarchist tendencies in the masses and ending with extremely rigid ideological forms of totalitarianism. This relative freedom of ideology from everyday consciousness, is sometimes widely used as a means of deliberate manipulation of public opi­nion, with alien ideas being implanted in the minds under the guise of vital class interests.'

Every ideology has its organiza­tion, its type of propaganda, and specific forms of ideologically in­fluencing the masses. Under the conditions of broad democratic openness, the uncontrolled influence of the dominant ideology is checked.

A great role in the theoretical substantiation of politics is played by philosophy. Historically, politics has often dominated philos­ophy, making it an apologist of the existing social relations. But ob­jective development of history makes it necessary to realize the dream, cherished since the times of Plato, of a state controlled by philosopher-politicians. Politics requires objective scientific recom­mendations of philosophy, otherwise erroneous or openly voluntarist tendencies develop in it. Truly scientific philosophical analysis brings into the open objective causes of social events, and helps to work out ways for regulating political interests in order to har­monize them gradually and in a planned manner.